According to a report by Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Anthem Sports and Entertainment, the parent company of Global Force Wrestling, is “hemorrhaging funds” on the wrestling promotion and is looking to cut bait.

“GFW is hemorrhaging funds, and sources close to the situation have confirmed that Anthem is ready to withdraw itself from the wrestling industry and sell GFW. Anthem even needed to gut the Fight Network in order to finance GFW.” (SI.com)

When Anthem swooped in (like an owl) late last year and purchased a majority stake in Impact Wrestling from Panda Energy and the Carter family, the purchased an asset deeply in debt and facing lawsuits on several fronts (Billy Corgan, the Hardy family, the Audience of One production company).

In an effort to alleviate the financial burden they acquired, Anthem has been aggressively cutting talent and scaling back on television tapings.

The news comes on the heels of Tuesday’s announcement that Jeff Jarrett is taking an indefinite leave of absence from the company due to ‘personal issues.’

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Another dynamic at play is the fact that Jeff Jarrett reportedly still owns the “Global Force Wrestling” trademark. Anthem’s decision to rebrand the company without owning the rights to “Global Force Wrestling” is ‘questionable’ at best. As such, Anthem would technically be selling “Impact Wrestling.”

At this point, the biggest asset under the Impact Wrestling umbrella is the TNA Wrestling tape library. WWE seems like the most logical buyer of this tape library, which includes years of matches from the likes of AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode, Kurt Angle, Sting, Eric Young, Drew McIntyre and more.

WWE will buy it. The future earnings from the Broken gimmick and the Network potential for the library will pay itself off tenfold.

Yeah, WWE buying the library is the only deal out there that could actually be profitable. But Vince isn't going to overpay-If Billy Corgan or some other money mark tries to get involved financially again and outbids him, Vince will just back off, and we'll just see the same "TNA losing money, investors looking to sell" story repeat itself again in six months. Then Vince will test the waters again, and the price he sees fit.

Much like with WCW, Vince is the only player out there that can actually make some money with it, so there's no need for him to bid against himself.

It isn't worth it if Anthem wants insane money, but if Vince can just write a semi-reasonable check and get X amount of hours to add to the Network, and match content to use on future DVDs for guys like Styles, Joe, Angle, etc., it can be a profitable deal.

To any other potential buyer other than WWE, the TNA brand has zero value, and they're basically just flushing that money down the toilet.

Can't see Corgan buying the company since he bought the NWA; if anything he just picks up the talent that don't go to WWE or ROH. WWE would be the only company that could really make TNA/GFW worth while (ROH/Sinclair could buy, but it probably end the same as now), this way you get complete DVD retrospectives on the big time talent & the "Broken" Hardy gimmick would be back where it belongs.

WWE will buy it. The future earnings from the Broken gimmick and the Network potential for the library will pay itself off tenfold.

Truly hope not. Im not sure who is more to blame for the shit hole that is american pro wrestling these days. Is it WWE for stomping out the competition and becoming lazy in its success or is it independent pro wrestling companies like GFW, ROH, etc. that SQUANDER opportunities to become successful. Obviously...GFW moreso than ROH.

The state of pro wrestling as a whole is utter crap. I love pro wrestling and suffer through the 90% of utter shit storm to find that tiny bit of joy and goodness that is there. As little faith as I have in JJ and GFW...I am still hope for success in them, ROH or someone...somewhere. The NBA Rockets just sold for 2.2 billion....cant some billionaire just take half that and deliver some competition. I was never a HUGE WCW fan in the Monday night wars...but Id give my left nut to see them again.

1) No matter what TNA/GFW can never be successful. They've had everything at several points in time. Younger blood, older legends, money to burn, investors, TV deals....yet they don't go anywhere. In this Internet age you would think they'd at least have a shot. But no. It truly boggles. What's JJ gonna do now start yet anther company?

2) With the exception of WCW no pro wrestling company has ever given WWE a run for it's money.

Like said the only way for any pro wrestling company to deliver WWE some competition would be with the backing of a billionaire. And indeed that's what happened with WCW. But will that hypothetical billionaire make money if they invest $1000 million in wrestling? I sadly doubt it. Seems if you're not WWE you simply won't make much money in wrestling.

Last edited by class316 on September 7th, 2017, 11:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

I think another major wrestling company can "make money", but the problem is, groups like TNA tried to jump to "let's compete with WWE" level, instead of "let's turn a profit" level. Back during their early days, when they were signing all of the indy darlings like Styles, Daniels, Joe, etc., if they would have been content with being essentially a regional "super indy", that ran live in a limited local area, did local/syndicated TV and MAYBE one PPV a year, they wouldn't have been on WWE's level, but they probably could have drawn more money then they were spending.

1) No matter what TNA/GFW can never be successful. They've had everything at several points in time. Younger blood, older legends, money to burn, investors, TV deals....yet they don't go anywhere. In this Internet age you would think they'd at least have a shot. But no. It truly boggles. What's JJ gonna do now start yet anther company?

2) With the exception of WCW no pro wrestling company has ever given WWE a run for it's money.

Like said the only way for any pro wrestling company to deliver WWE some competition would be with the backing of a billionaire. And indeed that's what happened with WCW. But will that hypothetical billionaire make money if they invest $1000 million in wrestling? I sadly doubt it. Seems if you're not WWE you simply won't make much money in wrestling.

You can make money in wrestling if you arent WWE....if you understand who your audience is and that includes who you can afford to appeal to. You also need a creative product and something that catches the internet's eye, which will cause your name to become worldly known. You cant just accept...as long as they are talking about us, doesnt matter if its good or bad. TNA has tried that and became laughable to the point that people werent paying to make fun of it...they were just making fun of it. And you cant expect to goto war with WWE right away. You need realistic expectations. The fans should drive the desire for war moreso than the company. Also, dont use WWE money. Meaning, you cant become a true competitor if you are always taking WWE money in order for them to take your talent, use your footage, etc.

I think another major wrestling company can "make money", but the problem is, groups like TNA tried to jump to "let's compete with WWE" level, instead of "let's turn a profit" level. Back during their early days, when they were signing all of the indy darlings like Styles, Daniels, Joe, etc., if they would have been content with being essentially a regional "super indy", that ran live in a limited local area, did local/syndicated TV and MAYBE one PPV a year, they wouldn't have been on WWE's level, but they probably could have drawn more money then they were spending.

The move to compete head to head spearheaded with the Hogan signing SUNK TNA. Can you imagine if TNA remained on Spike on Thursdays and never signed Hogan and all his cronies. You would have had Jeff Hardy at the height of his popularity...a returning RVD..a red hot X Division...AJ, Roode, Daniels, MCMG, etc...and legends like Sting, Flair, Angle...all on your roster. WOW! Instead they opted to piss away every dime on Hogan and all his bad decisions....paving the way for its eventual destruction.

A wrestling company can make money but I was talking more on a WWE grand scale not relative pocket change. With the exception of WCW no one has been able to achieve that and probably never will. If Vince dies and WWE goes on the decline, pro wrestling in the US will be practically dead.

A wrestling company can make money but I was talking more on a WWE grand scale not relative pocket change. With the exception of WCW no one has been able to achieve that and probably never will. If Vince dies and WWE goes on the decline, pro wrestling in the US will be practically dead.

It wont happen over night. True. WCW was around for years before it became true competition to WWE. They had established themselves to their audience (much smaller than WWE). It had stars that WWE did not have. It had Sting, Flair, Luger, Vader. It took guys WWE either lost or didnt use to their strengths like a Rick Rude or Ricky Steamboat and used them to their full potential. They build guys up like a Dustin Rhodes or even at one point a Shane Douglas. Dustin they hitched to his dad and Shane was hitched to Steamboat. They also had a tag team division that had a strong mix of some of the best. Road Warriors, Steiners, Midnight Express, Rock n Roll Express, Doom. Outside of the Hogan and Savage, WCW had a counterpart for every single WWE star. They used what they had and never tried to say "my Sting is just as big as your Hogan." They stayed in their market. They werent running live on Monday nights opposite Raw. They organically grew into the #2 wrestling company. And it did so before Turner poured his money into it. The money was just the tipping point.

Companies like TNA or Impact or GFW or whatever you want to call them....fail to understand that. When TNA first started, it seemed to understand that under Jerry Jarrett's leadership. It had a mix of talent and it had a niche. It didnt try to compete with WWE. But the thirst from fans who wanted a competitor was pushing it. The problem is the company lost site of that organic grow and just decided it was gonna throw shit against the wall and think daddy's billions would just keep on rolling. So making mistake after costly mistake didnt have the same type of ramifications. Money is money. Daddy didnt get to be a billionaire by just pissing it away left and right. At some point, he realizes he made a bad investment and cut ties. Sometimes it isnt about how much money you are making....but how much money you didnt lose. That means its smarter to know when to cut ties before it kills you than it does to know when to invest in order to grow.

I think ROH COULD, if they wanted to, be that new WCW. But until they can stop putting their hand out to WWE....that wont happen. You dont have to be heated enemies. But you cant be their bitch either.

I feel like the only 2 companies who could possibly give WWE any competition is ROH since, like CM said, they have the more "I'm not competing with WWE" thing going & they have an audience & good talent. NJPW could also compete with WWE if the takeover of America works as well as it did in LA.